The early morning tranquility of Snowpine Place, a residential street in upmarket Ashburn, Virginia, was suddenly shattered on May 18 by an FBI raid.
Agents in tactical gear swarmed the block of well-kept homes at 6:00 a.m., one shouting into a bullhorn, “This is the FBI. We have a warrant for your arrest. Come out with your hands up.”
A local disturbed by the commotion looked out to spot his neighbor, CIA agent David Rush, being led out in handcuffs, as reported on NBC4 Washington.
In total, the raid saw feds remove 303 gold bars worth some $40 million, which were government property, 35 luxury wristwatches and $2 million in cash from his residence.
If proven, it would be “the most significant financial crime, measured in dollars, in the history of the CIA,” Tim Weiner, author of “The Mission,” a 21st century history of the CIA,” told The Post.
Rush, 51, who is married, is currently being held in jail after a judge deemed him a flight risk. He allegedly engineered an audacious scheme to rip the agency off in plain sight, according to sources and reports.
He now stands accused by sources within the fed agencies not just of pilfering gold bars, but bluffing his way into the CIA — where he worked for around 17 years starting in 2009 — and fabricating most of his resume, including claims he was a navy pilot and universities he had attended.
Rush was the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology, but the agency has been tight-lipped about what his exact role entailed.
The agency’s joint announcement of his arrest alongside the FBI on May 27 said he had made requests for the gold bars for “work-related expenses” but gave little information beyond that.
Sources have since claimed Rush had a top security clearance within the agency, and that he had set up a fake fund related to “continuity of government” — the programs designed to keep the federal government operating in the most dire of circumstances, such as nuclear war or a catastrophic natural disaster, according to the Washington Post.
He is said to have briefed two other people about his false program, but it is unclear if they knew it was fake. Rush — described as a “master manipulator” by prosecutors — also allegedly persuaded one of those people to transfer millions of dollars to the program using a government contract which was also fake, the newspaper reported.
“He made up a contract,” according to a Washington Post source.
It’s not clear if Rush would have had to give a reason for his gold bar requests. The fund he set up was a “special access program,” typically reserved for intelligence work so sensitive even others within the CIA would have limited access.
However, if he were to give a reason, Weiner has some ideas how he would justify the request. “It could conceivably have been to pay a head of state or an underground guerilla group like the Iraqi Kurds,” who have recently been helping to keep Iranian-backed forced in check in Iraq, for example.
The CIA has also suspended “several” other officials as investigations into what appears to be an incredible lapse of judgement and background checking of Rush continue.
Rush has yet to enter a plea to the charges against him, which at this point do not relate to the gold bars. He is only charged with fraudulently claiming tens of thousands of dollars in compensation for military leave after he had been discharged from the US Navy in 2015.
However, in a story reminiscent of the movie “Catch Me If You Can,” Rush stands accused of fabricating a whole lot more.
Rush applied to join the CIA three times, twice in 2006 and then successfully in 2009. His applications listed a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and information systems from Clemson University, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Upstate New York, as well as US Naval Test Pilot certifications.
None of those things were true. Both Clemson and Rensselaer told the FBI they had no record of him attending classes at their institutions. Rush enlisted in the US navy in 1997, but was never a pilot, according to the affidavit for his arrest.
He was an Ensign in the US Navy Reserves from 2004 to 2015, when he was honorably discharged at the rank of lieutenant. Since then, he fraudulently claimed 744 hours of military leave on his official timesheet, according to the affidavit.
In 2018 Rush applied to move up in the government to a Senior Executive Service level, the level just below presidential employees within the federal government.
On his application, he repeated that he was a graduate of the US Air Force Test Pilot School and claimed he was “the current director of test for a 145-person, 18 aircraft joint Army/Navy weapons test organization,” despite records showing he had left service three years previously.
With such outsize lies, the issue worrying those watching the intelligence services is how exactly Rush’s lies had not been caught by the CIA and stopped long before now.
“People who work at high levels of the CIA are supposed to have very sensitive bulls—t meters. He was evidently able to game the collective bulls—t meter,” Weiner claimed.
“Rush, to make this happen, would have needed to defraud the Pentagon and the CIA at a very high level.
“As available evidence shows, he was a pathological liar and very good at deceiving people.”
Prosecutors have also claimed at one point Rush lied about being a doctor, although this point has yet to be elaborated on.
His apparent propensity to deceive is a chilling warning to the CIA and exposes serious national security risks, according to Weiner.
“His ability to deceive is mind-boggling. If this guy could do it, it is evidence that the Russians and the Chinese and Iranians have a higher likelihood of success and penetration.
“A very patient sleeper [cell], who succeeds in joining the CIA [can] wait five, ten, 15 years until they are near the top of the totem pole,” he said.
There is no evidence at this stage of Rush having been influenced by or working for any foreign government or power. The government stated in court filings they believe his actions were only to benefit himself.
Rush’s attorney, Jessica Carmichael, noted in court that he isn’t charged with a crime related to the gold bars, which she called “basically a non-issue” and “nothing more than a sensational tidbit.”
She said Rush properly obtained the gold bars, but removed them from his office and kept them locked in a safe in his basement, adding, “Mr. Rush never claimed they were his.”
If convicted, Rush wouldn’t be the first CIA officer to have been caught out.
Famously, Aldrich Ames worked for the agency for over 30 years before being outed as a double agent for Russia, who was responsible for the deaths of many officials recruited to spy for the US whose names he had given up. He was handed a life sentence in 1994 and died in prison this January.
Kyle “Dusty” Foggo worked his way up to the number three position at the CIA but became the highest-ranking officer at the agency to be convicted of a federal felony in 2008, when he pleaded guilty to Honest Services Fraud for steering a government contact to a pal.
Weiner, who also wrote a book about Ames, added, “This guy seems to combine the pathological lying of Ames the turncoat and the political corruption of Kyle Foggo, and his kickback schemes and payoffs.
“The available evidence shows that Rush has lied about every aspect of his personal and professional life, and lied his way into the CIA.”
